GM Hires Clinton-Administration Crisis Expert for Recall Advice

April 3 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co. has retained crisis-communications expert Jeff Eller as it builds a team to help respond to the recall small cars with faulty ignition switches tied to 13 deaths.

Greg Martin, a spokesman for the Detroit-based company, confirmed that Eller will join the team guiding the automaker’s response to the recall. Eller had been director of media affairs in the Clinton White House, according to his LinkedIn page.

“As we have from the start, we are drawing upon those who have deep experience and expertise in these matters,” Martin said in an e-mail today.

Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra fielded pointed questions and accusations yesterday from U.S. senators during a panel holding a hearing into why it took the company so long to recall 2.59 million small cars with potentially faulty parts. One senator said GM had a “culture of coverup” and another predicted it may face criminal liability.

Barra also announced this week that GM hired Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who managed funds for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to consider whether to compensate victims of the crashes. GM has also hired Jenner & Block LLC Chairman Anton Valukas, who prepared the report on the bankruptcy of Lehman Brother Holding, to co-lead the internal investigation of who know what, when, about the ignition flaws.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tim Higgins in Washington at thiggins21@bloomberg.net; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan, at jgreen16@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net James Callan